Debtload and the fear of taking on debt influence student decisions ranging from institutional choice to major to personal decisions. In a study examining the influence of debtload on college persistence, the authors found that borrowers in repayment expressed anger at having to assume more debt than students of a generation earlier (Cofer and Somers 1999).
In the 2002 National Student Loan Survey, Pell recipients who left school without completing a degree were much more likely than other non-completers to report that loans played a significant role in the decision to leave (Baum and O’Malley 2003).Students and their families are willing to invest time and money and to assume debt when the students are rewarded by grants and good grades and feel socially integrated into the campus environment (Cofer and Somers 1999).